Fourth International Conference on Communication & Media Studies

Abstract

The Indonesian government is currently taking action against hoax spreaders who are increasingly rampant at the level of destabilizing the country. A hoax is normally filled with hate speech or human rights violence in terms of ethnicity, religion, race, and inter-group relations which may divisive the sovereignty of Indonesian state. Social media such as WhatsApp, Twitter, and Facebook are the common media used to spread the hoax. For this reason, media literacy is required to educate Indonesian people so that they know which news is real and not. The fact that the government has arrested and imprisoned several people who spread hoax news should open people’s eyes that they have to be smart in deploying news. Under the theory of media literacy and social media ethics, this research is descriptive qualitative in nature. The researcher conducted interviews, literature studies, and non-participant observation in collecting data.